3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
A person’s doctrinal belief has tremendous implications. Paul signals this with his intensely personal wording, first in verse 2, “I, Paul, say to you …”, and now “And I testify again …” If a person receives circumcision then there is no benefit in being a follower of Christ (vs. 2), he is still obligated to keep the entire Law of Moses. He places himself back under a system of legalistic righteousness, and removes himself from life under grace.
The message here is this: Do you wish to live a holy life? Then get your doctrine straight. Avoid legalism. Get hold of grace! The Law mandates, but does not enable. Grace provides what the Law commands (Wm. MacDonald).
The consequences of getting this wrong is weighty. The person who lives by the Law is: 1) obligated to keep the whole Law, 2) severed from Christ, and 3) fallen from grace. Being obligated to keep the whole Law means we can’t be content with keeping just the more easily attained laws—every law becomes a cruel master. Further, we cannot just simply add the Law to faith in Christ, it is either Christ alone, or Christ not at all, severed. In other words, “God would put a minus sign before Christ in the lives of the Galatians if they put a plus sign before anything else” (J.M. Boice, Expositor’s Bible Commentary).
Fallen from grace is not just a modification of grace to ensure there is motivation for doing what is right. It is a departure from the high, glorious truth, that it is God alone who justifies us through His grace. And it is this same grace alone that enables us to live out what the Law demands, not human effort.
Does this mean, as some teach, that a Christian can fall from grace and therefore lose his justification? No! Paul had already addressed the foolishness of the believing Galatians, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” There he was speaking to believers, “you” who have already begun the life of the Spirit by grace. But here in Galatians 4:3-4 he speaks to “every man who receives circumcision” to be justified, “you” whose attempts at justification are based not on faith in Christ alone, but on the works of Law–which is futile. They are still lost souls, not justified believers. Though they have heard the message of grace through Christ, they have separated themselves from Christ, and fallen away from the message of grace.
Lord, convict those who appear to be Christians but who hold on to man-made efforts to justify themselves before You. Show them the magnitude of their error.
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